With All Illusions Shattered
by StarshipSailor
Summary: Set right at the end of the film. There are those who are resigned to their fate, those that will always help change it, those that will fight it and those that repeat it. Hope it sounds as good as it does in my head and you guys give it a chance. This isn't slash, just a look at the consequences of the film I guess. Enjoy!


Ok so second time of posting this because my notes got deleted as I posted the first time, don't know what happened there but still. Anyway this is going to be turned into a multi chapter hopefully but this is up to just see what people think about it. I'm only familiar with the characters from the films and Wiki (I haven't read any of the comics) so my apologies. There's a little plot excuse in here for Loki's behavior but I've seen it enough fic to feel fine about using it so all thats left is to say on with the show my chums!

oh DISCLAIMER ALERT:I didn't create the Avengers, the individual comics or even come up with the little bits of Norse Mythology that might pop up. Although self-weaving prophetic tapestries is mine ;)

As they landed back in Asgard and his brother escorted him across the bridge, Loki was reminded of all that he had lost, all that he had never truly had. The golden city of Asgard was never really supposed to be his home, its history and traditions were not his to lay claim to and the man by his side, whom he had spent years trying to gain the respect of...would never do so now because of what he is, what he had done. It was with a heavy heart that Loki was put before the Allfather. Thor had been a constant source of strength by his side as he'd led the way but was now hesitant. Eventually though he left to stand with the guards who had escorted the brothers. Loki kept his head down, his mind weighing on him heavily as images of what he had done after he found out his true heritage played across his thoughts; people's faces as they questioned his judgment, his father…rather the Allfather's face as the old man had tried to reason with him, his mother's as Thor told her what Loki had done.

He'd broken the day he realized he was a monster, but he'd tried to keep all he knew together. Unfortunately everything had escalated quicker then he could keep up with and he had to watch as it all fell apart around him…and then, in the end, he'd just let go, given himself over to the void. Thor and Odin would fix what he had let fall and he would not have to live with the knowledge that he was a monster, another relic locked up in a gilded cage awaiting it usefulness.

"Loki…" Odin faltered. There were no words that could describe the destruction he had caused in New York. The lives he had taken with his borrowed army. Loki knew this, his mind flashed with bursts of violent colour and screams echoed in his memories. It had been easier under the spell, emotions pushed aside to make way for his grand scheme to get his brothers attention again.

That's what it had been for Loki, his attempt at reaching out to his brother, gaining his attention once more. His vision had been warped though, twisted and deformed by the sly words of an insane Eternal. Dark, sick thoughts spoken to him in a time when he had be in a weakened state of mind. The word of Thanos had run through his mind and willed his body to do as the Eternal commanded, bringing him down to a level of taking orders like a slave rather then maintaining his princely honor. It had been a confusing time for him, being filled with a rage that was familiar and yet so unnatural to him that he had struggled to keep up at times. It wasn't until the Hulk and smashed him about like a rag doll that his thoughts had finally, truly become his own again. Thanos had faded from his mind in those seconds and Loki had been left hollow but for the knowledge that now there was simply no returning, no hope of pleading his case, for asking for forgiveness.

"What say you to the heinous crimes brought against you this day." Odin had regained composure, no doubt hiding the concerned father away so that he could be the unbiased ruler of a realm. There really was nothing he could say. Nothing said would be worthy enough to change his fate and he had accepted that long before he had set foot on Asgard again. He dare not even look to Odin or his brother and least of all his mother. The disappointment and hurt he would see crippled him at just the thought. How did he come to loose everything dear to him?

"I have committed such crimes against this realm and others that there are no excuses worthy of repeating. I am…a monster." His voice broke over the word. Never had he accepted that so well until now after all he'd done. He had tried so hard in the beginning to not be but he had failed and then Thanos had exasperated his problems further. Now there was nothing left but to face the consequences.

A silence followed before two guards gripped his bound arms and turned him towards the large doors off to the side. Odin giving silent orders to escort him to the prison cells. As the doors began to close he heard Thor speak up, no doubt trying to plead his case for him. It would be for nothing, Thor probably knew this more then he would ever admit.

The cell was all smooth metal and the softly glowing edges of the shield that kept him lock in pulsed lazily. A hard cot was molded out of the wall and a window let in the evening sun through the bars. His bonds had been removed and now he sat cross-legged on the cot, staring blindly at the wall opposite as voices and memories of happier times played across his mind. From a time when he was blissfully naïve and all he worried about was if Thor would let him play with his friends as they went on imagined adventures.

"Brother…" Loki closed his eyes in a slow blink to rid him of the memories and looked over to the shield. Thor stood by it looking as lost as he had when Loki let go of the scepter. He turned away from his older brother, he wished to stop causing Thor so much pain.

"Why do you not tell him of the control that had been held over you brother?" Thor sounded hurt and confused, like a child lost in a nightmare. He couldn't understand why Loki wouldn't bring up the control Thanos had over him and prove the devestation really wasn't Loki's doing.

"…Thanos did not have complete control over me…there were times, more so when I was on Midgard, that his control on me weakened periodically…but I carried on his work, to afraid of the consequences if I didn't." Loki tuned his hands over in his lap looking at the smooth skin and lines that others told the future by, he wondered if his told of his cowardice and timely death.

"I was a coward and many innocent people died for it. I may not have been in my true mind but I deserve no lesser punishment." A loud thud followed his words as Thor's fist hit the shield.

"That is not true brother! Why do you still let the dark words he spoke haunt you so? Those who died on Midgard did so not by your doing but by his. The power he held over you, whether it was magic or manipulation, was strong. Please! Can't you see this is all wrong?!" He was getting desperate; Loki could hear it in his voice. Thor had never been good with words or reasoning when he had to think about it, that had always been Loki's forte after all but his silver tongue would not weave words untrue anymore.

"You forget the monster I am behind this Asgardian mask." Suddenly the natural blue of his skin begins to bleed through, first his hands as he clenches them into fists before releasing them, his clothes covering up most of the transformation but then his face turns blue, the markings of a frost giant darker on his shimmering blue skin. It was quiet over by the shield and Loki doesn't look to see if Thor is still there, years of following the boy, then the man, had left him with the ability to know when Thor was near.

"You are still my brother Loki." It was whispered but there was a firmness to it that allowed for nothing else, no room for facts or arguing. Loki's lips twitched to a small sad shadow of a smile.

"Yes…but I don't deserve to be."

Back within the Palace Frigga allows the tears to fall silently as she watches her youngest son's tapestry weave itself. An ancient type of magic that she beholds; with one thread and a whispered word she can watch as her magic weaves someones entire history and even their future. She uses such power rarely but she keeps one for each member of her family within her weaving room. Her husband and son's tapestries each held their fair share of bright red patterns and darker shades, times in their lives that were bloody and violent, but now Loki's…her sweet child's Tapestry had been littered with holes and loose threads ever since the discovery of his heritage. Now it weaved slower the usual, hesitantly as though even the thread wasn't sure what the future held for her son.

Frigga knew though. Odin was a man who was first and foremost a king above everything else. The man would not think twice about punishing his sons, but unlike Thor who had served his punishment on earth and learnt his mistake, Loki had not been given the chance and then had stayed hidden a time before using a borrowed army that had caused more devastation. She believed Thor when the man explained how Loki had been under some form of control, a spell perhaps, that exaggerated and twisted Loki's own thoughts. Odin would not see it that way though and he would punish Loki for the crimes put against him because the people of Asgard wished him to be.

It was cruel she thought, that those people calling for Loki's punishment had not bare witness to the pain and suffering her child was already in. It was a shattered form of a man that she had seen today. The ghost of a man she had watched grow over the many years. Loki had been through tough times before but none where he'd had to question his very being, none were he had not felt the strong ties to a proud family steeped in history and legend.

She watched the thread weaving in and out and wondered just where in Loki's life was the tapestry at it was never easy to tell which patterns were for what and comparing a timescale to a certain repeated patterns is impossible but there is a way to know if you have the power and knowledge. She frowned in confusion as the pace of the thread began to pick up, weaving one sure line without gaps or fraying loose, then another and another. Her tears stopped at the strange happenings and stepped closer, inspecting the patterns and type of threading.

Frigga knew that Odin would send Loki to death, maybe a honorable death but a death nonetheless. It was why she was here, comforted by the history of her family rather then by the kings side as he continued his duties. She understood in the way that only a wife to a king can, but that didn't mean she could see him right now, hear his reassuring guilt-ridden words. If Loki was to die tomorrow then why was his tapestry still weaving and in such a more confident fashion then before, not as confident as Thor's but still better then before.

Curious she rested a hand on the latest row on the weave and closed her eyes, allowing the magic to seep into her and show her what it had created. She watched as golden light shone through a spacious room, there were many people here but she couldn't focus on any of them, she could here someone humming, a woman, then she could see delicate hands braiding raven black hair. The images were laced with contentment and peace and belonging. Taking her hand away Frigga's mind began to race. The tapestry was predicting Loki would be much happier in the future but how was that possible? If Loki was to die then this would not come to pass, and she so very much wanted her child to finally be happy.

Looking closer at the tapestry she could see a small tuft of thread poking out of a small pattern that usually signaled a big change in life that was unknown. She knew from experience that if whatever was written within that tuft of thread came true then it would unravel the future and being a new one from that point on. Loki being happy depended on what was done about the small thread. Taking a deep breath she carefully laid a finger on the piece, although she knew it what it must be; violent whip of a sword through the air followed by a gasp of breath and immense pain. She pulled her finger back almost instantly, she had been right; it was the death of her son. She knew it would be going against her husband and king but she knew now, she must find a way to save her son from this. She would affect the change in her son's life that would eventually lead him to peace.

Thor sat in a cell much like the one his brother had been in but here Thor was chained to the wall with thick heavy golden shackles. There was a dent in the wall behind his head where he had spent all night and day trying to gain freedom from the prison he was in. Taken in the middle of the night from the library where he had been trying to find away to free Loki, his hammer had been locked away as Odin watched the guards shackle his son d take him to a cell. For the rest of the night he had tried to gain his freedom and when morning came he had shouted with all he had for his release, for the release of his brother. Now he sat defeated as the afternoon sun fell through the small window, slowly drying tear tracks left forgotten on his face as he stared blindly at his feet.

The guards by his cell straightened and he could hear footsteps closing in on them but he didn't look to see who had arrived. The guards' behavior made that obvious. The shield was dropped as Odin stepped in and put back up when he walked over to Thor. Odin stood by his outstretched feet and Thor looked up slowly.

"Why?" His voice broke from too much shouting but also because of the pain he felt in his heart.

"You would have tried something foolish to stop what should come to pass." It was calmly spoken and that just tore Thor apart even more so. The bonds holding him strained as he fought against them.

"Of couse I would have! You think I'd stand idly by while you condemn my brother to death! For a crime you know he didn't commit willingly!"

"The people needed recompense for his actions." Again so much calm from a man who just killed his own son, adopted or not, was so wrong it grated on Thor.

"The people?! Loki had done nothing to them! Your precious Asgand was safe all along!"

"And what if he had succeeded! What if he had destroyed Midgard and then moved on to other realms, you think he would leave Asgard safe?!" The calm demeanor dropped and Odin took a step forward, his height over Thor trying for dominance.

"What if? You killed my brother because of a 'what if'? Father Loki was stopped before the devastation could reach further then Midgard and he wasn't even of his own mind! It was not truly Loki." His voice sounded like a plea but the deed had already been done. Odin's face was turning red now and his eyes dark and cold as he'd never seen them before.

"But it could have been!" Thor stared at his father as though just seeing him for the first time. He could see what his father was not saying now, the truth that was shrouded in diplomatic needs and duty to the throne.

"You wanted his death…you were afraid of him." Thor couldn't believe he was just seeing this now. After everything that ha occurred within his family and it was only now, with the death of his innocent brother that he was seeing his father for the man in the legends.

"You have always been afraid of him…keeping him here and submissive to you as only an uninterested yet overbearing father can…for some time now you've longed for a chance to be rid of him." Odin took a step back and shock fell across his face before he regained himself.

"He was a threat to the realm."

"He was my brother!"

"He was a monster! Brought to our realm simply to appease my own father! The tricks he played were only a small outlet to the danger and destruction he could achieve! You saw what he did in Midgard! Even his children where abominations that threatened all of the nine realms and in the end so was he!"

Thor could only stare at his father, his chest heaving with the anger that had boiled up and watched as Odin calmed himself, yet his eyes remained cold and tension still thrummed through him. The silence was deafening. In the past Thor had thought his father right in all matters, including the punishment for his brothers antics. The memory of his younger brother's children still sent shivers now his back but to know they were not as inherently evil as Odin had claimed sent his stomach rolling as well. He had done so much wrong by his brother with his ignorance.

"You shall see in time Thor…that a king must sacrifice himself to be the man his realm needs him to be." It was quietly spoken but there was no regret in his voice, no guilt or sorrow for what he'd done, what he would no doubt continue to do during his reign. Thor looked away from his father, across to the window where he could see the stars glowing brightly as though they were an impassive audience to this family tragedy.

"You have made no sacrifice…you impress upon others to do such a deed for you." He felt his heart break at the realization that his father was not the benevolent man who had had to make truly awful but worthy decisions in his reign as king, but a scared man who was just as paranoid, if not more so, of that which threatened his throne as Loki was of being seen as equal to his brother.

"In that I believe you are right father…I need to be a man who can lead these people as well as you have…but I wish to be a better man than you. One that will not look so coldly upon his people…or his family." Thor looked up at his father then and Odin could barely hold back a glare.

"I wish to return to Midgard."

"You cannot."

"I will do so eventually and you can not keep me locked here forever."

"If you do so then you will go as a mortal. The hammer shall not follow you and neither will the gifts of Asgard."

"Then so be it! You are my father but at this time I see nothing of the man who taught me the ways of Asgard. I wish to morn my brother in peace."

Odin was silent for a time before he turned swiftly to the shield and walked away from his son.

"There are dangers lurking out there, and now they have seen the power Midgard can produce. They will be curious and will not always stick to the shadows of the universe." The threat was evident but it felt more like a begrudged warning. With that he left, the shackles fell off Thor's wrists and the man rubbed at the sore skin was he watched his father leave. The shield didn't rise up again, allowing Thor to leave of his own free will.

Well? For my first dip into Avengers how was it? I know the Avengers aren't in it yet but this is some background that needed to be set...or at least I thought it did. Hope you enjoyed it and everything came across OK I hope Loki didn't come across as angsty for the sake of it, I hope it was believable angst there. Well please let me know what you think if you have time and happy readings.


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